THE O.B.E.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 15 November 1918, Page 1

THE 0.8. E.

A WEIGHTY PROTEST. The following letter, which speaks for itself, appeared in a recent issue <■; the I.on- - don * Times': Even in ihe. midst of the- anxiety arising from tho war, we-think it necessary to point onT in public ihe serious danger which may arise from a continued bestowal of honors without, ant* real safeguard againsi. abuse. Habits contractea in time of trouble and pressure, if unchecked now, will be difficult 1 o counteract hereafter. This subject, lias been debated in tho House of Lords. Before those debaies some, of us endeavored in vain to procure froiu tho Government such public assurances as might avert the necessity of a parliamentary discussion. When ihe discussion eanve on ihe scant!*! was neither denied nor defended, but the sccuii

uea embodied in resolutions have proved inadequate. There has Tjeen some improvement in the fo-xm of ihe ' Gazete' notice*, but the Toot of the evil remains. tho Prime Minister id responsible for rue advice given to the Crown. In reality, ithits become obvious that a Minister overwhelmed by public duties of the most arduous kind cannot possibly supervise the' distribution of honors or prevent the monetary corruption and debasement of standards which will assuredly ensue. He vrould bo obliged to neglect other vital duties. The same misoliief shows itself iu another direction. A Jiaw Order—that of tho British Empire—haboen instituted, and in a recent * Gazette' names cover no less than 60 quarto pages. We rr.ako 110 sugestion of corruption in connection wtih this Order, but tlio wholesale scale upon which it is granted makes it obvious that no responsible Minister can control the selection of the recipients, much less that it is a real mart oi His Majesty's favor. Our feeling is that, unless the bestowal of honors and titles is protected from t-liis sort of cheapening, and is unmistakably cleaned from tfie danger of a peculiarly mean kind of pecuniary corruption, and reserved for real merit, honors may come to be regarded as dishonors, leaving no way out except their entire abolition.

It is au additional and very grave evii that the money obtained by the disgraceful traffic in honors has gone to swell, and, if rumor is true, has mainly constituted, 'the largo party funds which are at the service of party leaders, and are used for party purposes. We baTe no sort of desire i© embarrass the Government, lfc is quit© impossible for Mr Lloyd George to spare the time necessary for supervising these lists, and yet it is due_ to the Grown that the constitutional advices-to which it is entitled shall not emanate, almost without being filtered in iis passage, from underlings aoces3ibl«j to all kinds of influonce. This subject, will again bo brought forward in Parliament after tho recess. We hope that these considerations will induce His Majesty s Government to help in securing some eifective safeguard, 6Uoh as "ihe transfer of this patronage from Ministers to an inde~ pendent committee of the Privy Council, or some other preferable remedy. We do not believe that- Mr Lloyd George can desire a continuance of this ovil any more than we do ourseives. Tho men who most deserve hono.s are nearly all under arms, and at tho present, time it is the names of thes-_-men that the country would prefer to se» in the honor ' Gazettes.' We are, your obedient servants, Balfour of Burleigh. Fred Huth Jackson. P. G. Banbury. Lorebuxn. Beresfoidof Metemmeh. Herbert Maxweli. Carnock. Fred Milner. R. Cavendish. - Francis Mo watt. Chaplin. Parmoor. Daitmouth. Phillimora. Deiiirt. Salisbury. Durham. Seibornc. Halsbury. Edward Seymour. . George Hamilton. Sumner. Laurence Hardy. Sydenham. Henry Hobho;\se.